Firebird
Take Flight. The Firebird sets the new gold standard in long travel trail bike performance. We’ve harnessed Dave Weagle’s ability to design the world’s best downhill suspension and added more than a few tricks of our own. The Firebird’s dw-link design has the DNA of 6 DH World Championships under its belt and its gravity based heritage is clearly evident in the bike’s incredible descending skills…but it doesn’t end there. We’ve built a bike that can climb as well as it descends. The dw-link’s position sensitive anti-squat characteristics make for exceptional climbing and snappy acceleration with perfectly tuned Fox suspension to handle anything and everything you love to ride. Build it up light for ultra-technical epics or build it up big for gravity runs. The Firebird is your ultimate trail machine.
The Firebird is designed and built to set a new bar for performance in the 6" travel trail bike category. The Firebird features a trail gobbling 6.50" (167mm) of rear travel. Dave Weagle and designer Kevin Tisue collaborated with Chris Cocalis to really get this bike dialed. Weagle’s ultra successful “Sunday" combined with Tisue’s downhill racing experience gave the Firebird touches that every “go big" rider will love. As every other Pivot, the Firebird is a pedaling marvel when pointed uphill as well. Also like other Pivots, the Firebird pushes the envelope with some forward thinking technological aspects not found anywhere else in the sport.
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Our patent pending variable position floating front derailleur mount is another piece of engineering mastery translating into even further performance gains. Big travel is the enemy of front shifting. On longer travel bikes, compromises have always been made with front derailleur performance and frame design restrictions. Not anymore: On the Firebird, the front derailleur moves in relation to the rear axle as the suspension moves through its travel keeping the chain perfectly positioned in the “sweet spot" of the front derailleur cage through the travel. The result is huge improvements in chain retention and shifting performance. The chain stays put in rough terrain while in the middle or big ring and is impossible to drop off the little ring. You can pedal hard through the rough stuff and aggressively shift into the little ring for steep climbs without ever having to worry about dropping your chain. In addition to the shifting performance gains, the Pivot floating front derailleur system also allows us to optimize the chainstay location, frame weight, and overall design strength of the Firebird frame. Our floating design maintains the correct relationship with the chain for better shifting and chain retention throughout the travel. For those of you wanting to run a single ring guide, the floating mount is fully removable via one bolt so that a single chairing chain guide can be easily installed to the Firebird’s integrated ISCG05 mounts. The bottom bracket is a standard 73mm wide threaded shell to allow for use of new shifting systems and give the rider a broader choice of cranks and chain guides. No muss, no fuss, and a better ride for you!
Also, be on the look out for a custom Pivot-specific E-thirteen double ring chain guide designed to interface and function perfectly with our floating front derailleur design.
The Firebird is made of oversized, triple butted, hydro-formed 6061 aluminum custom tuned for it’s aggressive nature while making the bike one of, if not the, lightest in the class. At 6.95lbs for a small anodized frame (or under 29lbs for a complete bike with our XTR kit), the Firebird has no equal. The front triangle and one-piece rear triangle are mated by anodized gold hardware (unique to Firebird) and a high modulus, weight shaving, carbon fiber upper Linkage. The Firebird is equipped standard with a custom-tuned Fox RP23, but is available with a Fox DHX 5.0 air for a small up-charge. The RP23 on the Firebird features give riders top level performance in a light weight, high performance package with worry free set up. The DHX 5.0 Air option opens up the tuning possibilities for those who like to tinker or are truly pushing the limits of extreme riding. (We are already getting questions on which is better, so it should be noted that the RP23 version is preferred by both Cocalis and Weagle while the DHX is Kevin Tisue’s favorite for it’s ability to run it really soft through the middle while being able to control bottoming separately, plus everyone agrees that it look cool.). For 95% of riders, the RP23 is the ticket. For those pushing the limits of resort and park riding (Whistler, Keystone, etc.) the DHX has higher oil volume and can therefore handle bigger repeated hits at high speeds that will heat up the shock. For rides like Porcupine Rim and Downieville, the RP23 is still the best choice because of its versatility. Both shocks share the same volume air chamber so general ride and bump performance is identical in most terrain.
The Firebird is a LONG TRAVEL TRAIL bike that can take you anywhere. It is not designed to be a jump park, freeride or pure downhill bike however capable it is to handle these disciplines. The Firebird features a 1.5 headtube and is designed for a 160-170mm travel fork. Complete bikes feature FOX 36 RC2 forks with 1.5 to 1 1/8th tapered steerers to optimize strength and stiffness while keeping the bike light. The 1.5 headtube offers true flexibility to run, 1.5, 1 1/8th, tapered, single crown, or dual crown forks. The Firebird is available in S, M, L and colors are Anodized Black and Anodized Root Beer Brown.
Seat clamp is a 34.9mm, seat post size is 30.9mm (as with all Pivots), and Dropouts are 135mm standard axle. The rear shock is an 8.5" long X 2.5" stroke with .86" wide hardware at each end. Mounting bolts for the shock are M8 x 1.25mm.
